Jean de Wavrin

Jean de Wavrin (* 1400, † after 1471 ) was a historian of Flanders.

Life

Jean de Wavrin was an illegitimate child of a respected aristocratic family in the Walloon region of Flanders, whose members were able to occupy important positions in the 15th century at the Burgundian court. On October 25, 1415 was Wavrin eyewitness of the events of the battle of Agincourt, in which his father Robert VII de Wavrin and his half-brother died in battle.

Over the next twenty years Wavrin was almost continuously in the service of the Duke of Burgundy or his English allies in the wars in France. Wavrin served in the Burgundian army and fought in 1427 against the Hussites. After his marriage with Marguerite de Hangouart the patricians of the city of Lille in 1437, he settled there and was able to expand its social and overall financial situation sustainable. After he became already in 1422 Knight and Lord of Forestel, he could call 1462 Chamberlain and three years later Council ( conseiller ) of the Duke of Burgundy. For the Dukes, he held different services and was sent, among others, in 1463 with a mission to Rome. Jean de Wavrin died during the creation of his chronicle of the history of England in the years after 1471.

Chronicle: Reports of croniques et anciennes istoires de la Grant Bretaigne

His historical work, the Recueil des croniques et anciennes istoires de la Grant Bretaigne is based on the interest Wavrins in the history and the chivalry of England, on whose side he had fought for years. The cultural contacts between the English and Burgundian court, where he frequented, were certainly his plan. So he found supporters as Charles the Bold, the Wavrin 1469 permission granted to visit the Earl of Warwick, Richard Neville, to solicit material for his work. In the prologue of his chronicle Wavin mentioned his nephew Waleran de Wavrin (about 1418 - after 1480) who suggested Wavrin had decided to write a history of the Kingdom of England.

His chronicle of the history of England begins with the mythical Trojan beginnings and ends in the year 1471. The Recueil des croniques et anciennes istoires de la Grant Bretaigne is a compilation of other historiographical works. Many different sources, but especially the listoire de chest, the processing of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and the Chronicle of Froissart served for the first four of his six volumes of comprehensive chronicle. The author used especially chronicles Enguerrand de Monstrelets In the representation of the period after 1400. So he copied from the major part of his story up to the year 1443rd Nevertheless, he cut partially the template and let their own information and interpretations incorporated. There are also relationships between Wavrin and Jean le Fèvre de St. Remy, whose work is also based on Monstreets representations.